I experimented with salsa recipes for years and finally figured it out about 10 years ago. Here's what I like: 2 nice tomatoes, one medium yellow or red onion, 1 - 2 jalapenos, 2 - 3 scallions (green onions - use all white and green parts), 6 or so stems of cilantro - chopped, 0.5 - 1 tsp sugar, 0.5 tsp salt, juice of a lime, 1 tsp - 1 tbsp cumin, and 6 - 8 ounces of tomato juice. It's really excellent and the cumin and tomato juice were the ingredients that really take it over the top. Try it, you'll see. Everyone that's ever tasted it over the years has loved it. I know the juice sounds strange, but it's good. DO NOT COOK. If you must have garlic, sprinkle a little bit of garlic powder on it, but it's better with no garlic. Let it stand for an hour or so before eating.

Hey guys, I just posted the recipe above and I want to correct an error - Duh! I said yellow or RED onion. I MEANT yellow or white onion. I guess I was thinking no red onion and the thought went to my fingers.

Very similar to my own "recipe" for home-made salsa. I think the key is to take the recipe and make it your own.

In addition to the basic recipe shown I like to add tomatillos and some red or yellow bell pepper, along with some anaheim and poblano chiles. The bell peppers and chiles are really good if you roast them on the grill first and peel them. You can vary the heat to suit yourself by reserving the membrane from the chiles and adding it back in to suit yourself. If you thoroughly remove the seeds and membranes from the chiles you have something you can serve to almost anyone that has a lot of flavor without the heat (I'm from the mid-west where people tend not to like food that's too spicy.)

Substituting a good brand of diced canned tomatoes for up to 2/3 of the tomatoes speeds the process. It also improves flavor when you can't get good tomatoes.

We always use white onions. Yellow cultivars are too sweet, while red onions are best with seafood -- as another reader noted. We also roast our tomatoes and chiles (usually serranos or jalapenos) over a gas or charcoal flame before skinning and seeding both. Technically speaking, I suppose we're crossing the line between salsa cruda and salsa casera, but the improved flavor and texture justify the extra effort.

My Mother use to make
ingridients
Tomatos ,bay leaves,blak pepper corns,salt ,galic cloves,oregano ,olive oil, blanch,chopped tomatos peeled leave room for fermentation
In a thick bottle fermented in the sun for days ,till fermentation stopped cover with cheese cloth
corcked,store can't, remember much more than that

i make a variable tropical salsa that anyone whos tasted it can never get enough. its
one large red onion diced
one large mango diced
one cup freshly diced pineapples
if desired one cup diced fresh strawberries and fresh peach (if u do the berries and peach dont do the beans)
one large lime
as much as cilantro as you want
2 seeded and finely diced jalapenos
half a cup of black beans
salt and pepper to taste
half tsp roasted and crushed cumin seeds or powder.
a few pinches of garlic powder crushed red pepper flakes are optional and yummy.
cheers!

Serve room temp salsa cruda over hot noodles (do not cook the salsa!). For a more Italian flavor, replace the cilantro with fresh oregano. I have both in my garden so I just go with whichever mood I'm in.

I wouldn't mention this anywhere except for this site but the correct term for "board scraper" is actually "bench knife". Coming from a long line of engineers, I'm familiar with the importance placed on correct terminology.[/u]

mexican food isn't made with exact recipes... it's made with the heart and mostly with the stomach...

in this sauce we, or at least me, usually doesn't use garlic, and certainly i do not use a collander for the tomatoes.

when chop the onions, you don't need to be gentle, gross cut it's OK, if the flavor its intense, you can reduce by "desfleme", put the chopped onion on cold water for 1 or 2 minutes, remove and put on a collander to remove the excess of moisture-

although you decide to use jalapeņos or serranos, if you put on the table and press gently with your hand and move front and back you are "toreandolos" or "making it angry" thus bettering flavor and making it more hotter, you could remove the seeds if you like, but part of the flavor go with it.

don't be affraid with cilantro leaves, make a roll and chop entire, with stem, this sauce can't be ruined by puting too much cilantro.

even if you decide to use lemon juice instead of lime juice, put 2 or 3 tablespoons of orange juice to balance acidity (sourness).

unlike math, the order here does matters... the order to put on the bowl:

onion
cilanto
tomatoes
stir up
salt
stir up
chiles
orange juice
stir up (taste flavor and add salt if needed)
lemon juice
stir up
put on the fridge for at least 30 minutes
stir up before each serve